2024 Men’s NCAAs: Florida’s Josh Liendo and ASU’s Leon Marchand Claim 3-for-3 Title Sweeps

2024 MEN’S NCAA SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Florida sophomore Josh Liendo and Arizona State (ASU) junior Leon Marchand have accomplished 3-for-3 individual NCAA title sweeps in their respective events, joining an elite historic list. California’s Destin Lasco was close to a 3-for-3 sweep, but fell to fifth in the 100 back final on Friday, leaving him with two 2024 individual NCAA titles.

Liendo started off his individual schedule by winning the 50 free, where he upset last year’s defending champion, Tennessee’s Jordan Crooks. He then ripped 43.07 to become the #2 performer all-time in the 100 fly. Tonight, Liendo sealed the deal by defending his 2023 title in the 100 free at 40.20, exactly 0.08s faster than last year. The Canadian native now joins fellow Florida alum Caeleb Dressel (2017-2018) and Cal alum Ryan Hoffer (2021) in sweeping those three exact events.

Meanwhile, this was Marchand’s second consecutive championship meet where he swept all three of his individual events. What made his feat stand out was his event lineup change, whereas Dressel repeated his back-to-back triple wins in the same events. Back in 2023, Marchand swept the 200 IM/400 IM/200 breast. This year, Marchand kicked things off with a whopping 4:02.31 in the 500 free, which marked a new NCAA record. He then defended his 400 IM title in 3:32.12. Marchand ended his 2024 triple event sweep in style with a new 200 breast NCAA record of 1:46.35.

Recently at the 2024 Women’s NCAA Championships, Virginia sisters Gretchen Walsh and Alex Walsh also accomplished the same feat as Liendo and Marchand. Liendo matched G.Walsh’s 50 free/100 fly/100 free triple crown while Marchand equaled A.Walsh’s second time performing a 3-for-3 event sweep.

3-for-3 NCAA Title Sweep Champions Since 2017

Year Swimmer Team Event 1 Event 2 Event 3
2017 Will Licon Texas 200 IM 100 BR 200 BR
2017 Katie Ledecky Stanford 500 FR 200 FR 1650 FR
2017 Kathleen Baker Cal 200 IM 100 BK 200 BK
2017 Caeleb Dressel Florida 50 FR 100 FL 100 FR
2018 Ella Eastin Stanford 200 IM 400 IM 200 FL
2018 Caeleb Dressel Florida 50 FR 100 FL 100 FR
2019 Beata Nelson Wisconsin 200 IM 100 BK 200 BK
2019 Andrew Seliskar Cal 200 IM 200 FR 200 BR
2021 Paige Madden Virginia 500 FR 200 FR 1650 FR
2021 Shaine Casas Texas A&M 200 IM 100 BK 200 BK
2021 Ryan Hoffer Cal 50 FR 100 FL 100 FR
2022 Kate Douglass Virginia 50 FR 100 FL 200 BR
2022 Alex Walsh Virginia 200 IM 400 IM 200 FL
2023 Kate Douglass Virginia 200 IM 100 FL 200 BR
2023 Leon Marchand Arizona St 200 IM 400 IM 200 BR
2024 Gretchen Walsh Virginia 50 FR 100 FL 100 FR
2024 Alex Walsh Virginia 200 IM 400 IM 200 BR
2024 Josh Liendo Florida 50 FR 100 FL 100 FR
2024 Leon Marchand Arizona St 500 FR 400 IM 200 BR

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Foreign Embassy
7 months ago

Please do an article, by decade, of who has accomplished this. Back to the 70s! Would be awesome to see.

nealnan8
Reply to  Foreign Embassy
7 months ago

Matt Biondi won the 50, 100 and 200 free in 1986.
John Nabor won the 100 & 200 Back and 500 free in 1974 or 75.

Johnson Swim school
7 months ago

You all forget Josh accomplished.

Phil Espinosa
7 months ago

500 free and 4-IM, gotta be multiple folks who have won these two together…..400 IM and 2 Breast, Chase comes to mind as having won both, I think…..500 free and 200 breast? That’s a Kate Douglas double lol

green
Reply to  Phil Espinosa
7 months ago

50(0) free/200 breast

jeff
Reply to  Phil Espinosa
7 months ago

Honestly with the 500 free field this year, I think Alex Walsh totally could’ve taken a crack at winning the event if she wanted to, which would end up being the same triple as Marchand. Ofc that’s all in hindsight, with Bella’s winning time being like 4 seconds slower than her pb

jeff
7 months ago

I think the men’s and women’s NCAAs this year were the 2 closest we’ve gotten to three swimmers going 3-for-3 in the same meet. Bobby Finke got close ish in 2021 but winning the 500 free would’ve been a stretch, while Bella and Destin seemed much more capable of winning the 200 back/100 back respectively

Gheko
7 months ago

Neither of them are American.

Swimmer
Reply to  Gheko
7 months ago

And?

About Nick Pecoraro

Nick Pecoraro

Nick has had the passion for swimming since his first dive in the water in middle school, immediately falling for breaststroke. Nick had expanded to IM events in his late teens, helping foster a short, but memorable NCAA Div III swim experience at Calvin University. While working on his B.A. …

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